Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach

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Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach
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Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach
(CALLA).

• The Cognitive Academic Language Learning
  Approach (CALLA) is an instructional model that
  was developed to meet the academic needs of
  students learning English as a second language in
  American schools. Based largely on findings of
  studies on cognition, the model integrates
  academic language development, content area
  instruction and explicit instruction in learning
  strategies for both content and language
  acquisition.

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Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach
(CALLA).

• Model for an instructional program for ELL
  students at intermediate level.
• Designed to assist ELL students by providing
  English instruction through the mainstream
  curriculum.

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CALLA is design to

• Meet the academic language development needs in
  English.
• Provide a program of content-based instruction.
  Bridge between ESL or bilingual education and
  mainstream education.
• Develop a curricular and instructional approach
  for ELL students based on a cognitive model of
  learning.

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CALLA Activities to develop Academic Language

• Develop academic and technical vocabulary.
• Practice in listening.
• Oral language development through hands-on
  activities.
• Practice academic speaking skills.

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CALLA Activities to develop Academic Language
(cont.)

• Develop reading comprehension skills.
• Practice writing.
• Practice language functions.
• Develop thinking.

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Learning Strategies

• Metacognitive thinking about the learning
  process, planning, monitoring, and evaluating.
• Cognitive interacting with the material to be
  learned, manipulating or applying.
• Social and affective interacting with other
  person to assist learning.

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Metacognitive Strategies

• Advance Organization.
• Selective Attention.
• Organizational Planning.
• Self-monitoring.
• Self-evaluation.
• Self-management.

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Cognitive Strategies

• Resourcing.
• Grouping.
• Note-taking.
• Summarizing.
• Deduction
• Imagery

• Auditory Representation.
• Elaboration
• Transfer
• Inferencing

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Social and Affective Strategies

• Questioning for clarification.
• Cooperation.
• Self-task.

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How to Teach Content?
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Activities

• Content should be taught as experiences rather
  than merely as facts. Instead of being drilled on
  content vocabulary and facts, students should be
  provided with opportunities to understand new
  information and practice new skills within
  meaningful contexts, and then to apply the
  information and skills to their own experiences.
  Cooperative learning and other types of hands-on
  group activities are particularly effective in
  providing experiential learning opportunities.

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Prior Knowledge

• The link between what students already know and
  what they are to learn should be made explicit so
  that students understand that they are building
  on knowledge frameworks acquired through prior
  schooling and life experiences, even if these
  were acquired through another language and a
  different cultural context. Teachers can help
  students activate their prior knowledge through
  brainstorming discussions about the lesson topic,
  semantic mapping or other graphic organizers, or
  a cooperative activity in which they have to
  draw on their prior knowledge.

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Technical Vocabulary

• Technical vocabulary is important because in
  many cases a word represents an important concept
  or relationship. When presenting and explaining
  new information teachers should use appropriate
  technical vocabulary, providing paraphrases,
  definitions, and examples to clarify meaning

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Learning styles

• Students learn in different ways. Some students
  learn best by seeing the information visually,
  whether as a written text, pictures, or diagrams.
  Other students learn best by listening to the
  teacher or to other students. Many students learn
  best through concrete experiences, such as
  manipulating objects or equipment, building
  models, or representing information through art
  drama. The teacher should make use of visual,
  auditor, and kinesthetic means of presenting new
  content and whenever possible, these different
  types of input should be combined so that
  students have multisensory experiences with the
  new content

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Overviews

• Overviews provide students with a general
  understanding of major points that they will be
  studying and how these points are interrelated.
  However, do not present large chunks of
  information at a time. Intersperse practice
  activities with the presentation of information
  so that students have an opportunity to use and
  think about the new information. For example
  students can work in groups to answer questions
  write summaries, or make diagrams about the new
  information after each presentation of new
  content. This allows them to select and organize
  major concepts to be remembered

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Questioning

• Model higher-order thinking skills. Teachers can
  show students how to ask and answer higher-level
  questions about the content being studied.
  Higher-level questions ask students to speculate,
  predict, synthesize, and make judgments about the
  content material they are learning, rather than
  merely recall facts. These types of questions
  require students to use their prior knowledge and
  understanding of what is being studied in the
  unit to express their thoughts and insights about
  important issues and problems. Teachers not only
  ask higher-level questions, but also model
  higher-order thinking, thus making their own
  thinking visible.

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Teacher Monitoring

• Constantly monitor students' comprehension of
  the content. The teacher can monitor
  comprehension with oral and written questions,
  exercises, checklists, observation scales, and
  performance measures.

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Student Monitoring

• Teach students to monitor their own
  comprehension. When students monitor their
  comprehension, they know when they are not
  understanding and can ask questions to resolve
  their comprehension difficulties. In monitoring
  their own learning, students should compare new
  information with their prior knowledge and
  correct any misconceptions they may have had at
  the beginning of the lesson or unit. Students
  should set learning goals and monitor whether or
  not their efforts at learning are successful.

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Student Monitoring

• Various techniques can be used to help students
  restructure their knowledge in this way. An
  example of a knowledge-restructuring technique is
  K-W-L. In this technique, students first list
  what they already know and what they want to find
  out about a topic. After completing their study
  of the topic, students document what they have
  learned, which provides them with an opportunity
  to compare their new knowledge with their prior
  understanding.

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Graphic Organizers

• Graphic organizers, or schematic representations
  of information, can help students understand and
  remember content information. Types of graphic
  organizers are semantic webs, spider maps, Venn
  diagrams, timelines, T-Lists, flow charts, story
  maps, and charts of various kinds. Graphic
  organizers can be used by students to record
  their prior knowledge about a topic and later add
  to or revise that knowledge as they encounter new
  information.

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Graphic Organizers

• When students are listening or reading for
  information, they can write down the main ideas
  on a graphic organizer. When completed, the
  graphic organizer becomes an integrated summary
  of the content presented in the lesson or unit,
  and can then be used as a study guide. Graphic
  organizers can also be used by students to
  reflect on and evaluate what they have learned.
  Similarly, graphic organizers can be used to
  organize ideas and information that are to be
  written about or presented orally.

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Resources

• Give students access to a variety of content
  resources in your classroom. Gradelevel
  textbooks, library books, articles, pictures,
  software, and realia can be used as reference
  tools by students as they work on projects and
  reports. Students should be shown how to locate
  specific information in such resource materials
  even if their ability to comprehend the entire
  text is limited. Using resource materials helps
  students develop and extend their knowledge.